Changing in a changing climate with Charlotte at Bluebird Gardens
Charlotte’s Summer Gardening Tips
Butterfly or moth?
It's Polyphemus, a 3.5-5.5 inch Missouri native moth found from mid-April through August. It's the second largest Missouri moth. According to "Butterflies and Moths of Missouri" by J. Richard and Joan E. Heitzman, larvae have been reported in more than 20 species of trees and shrubs including soft maple, birch, hazelnut and oak. This youngster was sitting in one of my potted tropical lime trees on my deck. Maybe it was on vacation.
It's easy to get caught up in garden catalogs waxing poetic about the latest rose hybrid.
This old-fashioned, single "nearly wild" pink rose reminded me there's beauty even in the simplest pink rose.
I've always been enchanted by the thought of a 1-inch Hummingbird Moth, something even tinier than the lovely little hummingbirds I remember from my childhood in Brazil.
According to Missouri's Department of Conservation, these Sphinx family moths are often confused with hummingbirds, their flight and eating habits very similar.
See the long, straw-like proboscis? When not in use, hummingbird moths keep it curled up under their chins.
If you enjoy watching hummingbirds, its easy to plant flowers that will bring them, and keep them, around your garden. I have a number of deck pots full of plants specifically for hummingbirds, including various colors of salvia and petunias, all in a range of hummingbird favorite colors of red, pink and white, and purple. 
Years ago, I first saw Blue-eyed Grass by the side of my gravel country road.
Thinking I needed new glasses, I went back a few days later trying to find the lovely blue flowers, only to come across clumps of what looked like grass. Once I identified the flower in my Missouri Wildflowers book and understood it was actually a tiny iris, it was much easier to spot them. The pointed ends of Blue-eyed Grass is one giveaway to this Missouri wildflower; another are the small green seed balls that form after the flowers are finished blooming. These perennial Missouri wildflowers are tiny; here the plants are up against wild strawberry plants, themselves smaller than regular strawberry plants. Blue-eyed Grass starts blooming mid April and will continue through summer. I planted the latest patch next to my Hydrangea tree, and impatiens in a fallen pot, outside my front door. This way I can enjoy them every time I go outside.
Charlotte
Can you tell which plant in photo is a Rose of Sharon and which one is poison ivy?
Poison ivy is a plant that generates an oil that produces a red, itchy rash. Once you've made contact, don't touch any other areas until you can wash area with soap and water. Do so as soon as possible! Wash clothes separate from other clothing with hot water and detergent.
Itching?
Apply crushed plantain leaves, calamine lotion, baking soda, or cortisone cream. Mix baking soda with witch hazel to form a paste.
Apply to rash. You can also take antihistamines such as Benadryl to relieve itching.
Swollen eyes or hard to breath? Contact a medical professional immediately.
And stop scratching! (The plant on left is poison ivy.)
If there's one plant everyone has heard about, it's poison ivy.
Recognizing the plant in a garden, however, is another story.
Especially if you garden in Missouri, these plants can grow to 5-feet and masquerade as a bush. Poison ivy has three leaves. In summer, the plant has white berries. In fall, leaves turn pink and red. The plant has an oil that produces a red rash with blisters. Some people are highly-allergic, others don't react to exposure to the oil at all. My best advice is stay away from it!
Last year I bought several thornless blackberry starts from a friend.
The season was so hot, I wasn't sure any of them would survive.
I scattered the plants around the garden, including two plants next to a trellis outside one of my bay windows.
Looks like I'll have blackberries this year!
I finally got the strawberry types straight, and found out the kind I want in my garden - "day neutrals."
That's the name of strawberries that keep giving berries all season. Their name comes from them not taking cues from the length of sunlight, which triggers other varieties. Not to be confused with "everbearing strawberries," which really provide fruit only a couple of times during their growing season, once in June, then again early fall.
Regular strawberries fruit once, maybe twice, in June.
Besides frequency of fruit, day neutral strawberries tend to be smaller than new strawberry hybrids but they make it up in delicious, continuous fruiting!
If there's one plant you need in your garden, it's marigolds.
These hardy annuals bloom in spite of hot, dry weather - the pot marigolds even open and close with the sun.
In addition to being very easy to start from seeds, marigold roots exude thiophenes, which kill nematodes. They're also a natural pest repellent and for years have been planted around garden borders.
Once you buy old-fashioned marigolds, you can save seeds and re-plant the following year and still have enough to share!
It's a sure sign of spring when one hears Missouri's native frogs known as "spring peepers" singing. As tiny as they are - maybe 2 inches long - they sure can make noise! I usually hear them first mid-February, when we have our first warm week in winter. One afternoon, it sounded like I had a convention of them on my deck. I looked around empty flower pots, deck furniture, the covered grill, trying to locate who was originating the tell-tale sound. As I was leaving the deck, I finally met one of the little singers, swinging on the deck gate!
Margaret, my oldest cat, is fascinated with frogs.
After Margaret takes her 10 steps into Bluebird Gardens with me for her daily "walk," she likes to settle into the impatiens. (I haven't had the heart to tell her white's just not the best camouflage color.)
The last time a frog jumped by, Margaret jumped in right after him!
Frog was fine. Margaret dog-paddled around until she found a spot to climb out, then walked back to the front door.
Hmmm, word must be getting around. I don't see any frogs - do you??
I knew the night I was sitting on my deck and was hit on the head by something grey flying by, I had a bat. I was wrong; it was a moth. The Carolina Sphinx Moth has to be one of the - well, cutest - moths around. It has huge black eyes, and when it's at its full 4-inch size, it does resemble a small bat. Carolina Sphinx Moths move among flowers at dusk and hang around outside lights at night. What I didn't expect was to find how they get a start in life as tobacco horn worms.
I had exhausted my options of what to call these very odd-looking caterpillars hanging onto the trunk and leaves of my potted orange tree on the deck as I was trying to identify them with an online search. I was about to brush them off orange tree leaves on my deck, thinking some bird had settled in the tree for the morning, when one of them moved his head and stuck out little red antenna. After several searches for brown caterpillars and caterpillars with red antenna, turns out these interesting-looking caterpillars, ranging in size from 1 to 2 inches, are know as bird-poop caterpillars and will soon become swallowtail butterflies! Another good reason not to use pesticides in the garden. Now I need to make sure I have enough good flowers in the garden they like to munch....
No, but they sure look like it!
Salvia are hardy bloomers. These hardy annuals live in pots around our deck all summer and get moved inside during winter. Salvia varieties grow about 3 feet high and wide on sturdy stalks. They are fast and constant bloomers. I remove spent flowers when there are only a couple flowers left at the bottom of the flower stalk to encourage more blooms. Bees, butterflies, moths and hummingbirds regularly pay visits. We've also seen other salvia varieties in white, blue and purple.
Neighbors keep telling me I can't grow roses on my Missouri limestone hill.
I haven't told my roses yet. They're all rescues, left-over potted roses from the end of the growing season. Sometimes I don't even know what kind or color they are, so when they finally bloom it's a delightful surprise.
Did you know roses are edible?
I once garnished a friend's salad with one. Come to think about it, she hasn't spoken to me since…
USDA Zone 6b
Limestone Hillside
